John Golden (died 1694) was a Jacobite pirate and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

active in the waters near

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. His trial was important in establishing Admiralty law, differentiating between privateers and pirates, and ending the naval ambitions of the deposed James II.

Biography

Catholic King James II was deposed in late 1688 in favor of Protestant rulers

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

. Retreating to France, he issued privateering commissions in concert with France's King Louis XIV to aid in harassing English forces at sea. Golden used one such commission with his ship ''Sun Privateer'' to capture the English frigate ''James Galley'' in late 1692. En route to France they were recaptured by the English vessel ''Prince of Orange'', then returned to England and imprisoned at

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, ...

to await trial. Golden argued that his French privateering commission via James II was still valid, and that as such he should be treated as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

and not tried as a pirate. He and his crew also quoted the

Treaty of Limerick }), signed on 3 October 1691, ended the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland, a conflict related to the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War. It consisted of two separate agreements, one with military terms of surrender, signed by commanders of a French ...

, which allowed English subjects to serve foreign rulers militarily. The King's Admiralty Advocate William Oldys agreed and refused to prosecute them for piracy. Other officials disagreed and removed Oldys, replacing him with Fisher Littleton, who agreed to prosecute some of the prisoners as pirates but tried Golden and a few supporters for treason instead. Matthew Tindall, who later wrote about the case, supported Littleton's position. Littleton argued that a deposed ruler had no authority to commission privateers and therefore Golden and his crew had no protections under law. The Treaty of Limerick forbade English subjects from serving against England and the Court rejected it as a defense. Convicted of treason for making war against William and Mary in the name of a foreign ruler, Golden and two others appealed to the court, arguing that being deposed did not deprive James II of his authority as King and laid out several arguments supporting their claim to be treated as prisoners of war. The Court rejected their Jacobite arguments: “through Ignorance, as supposing the Commission he acted under sufficient to warrant his Illegal Proceedings; the Jury being directed by the Court as to matter of Fact, he was found Guilty of High-Treason.” In March 1694 they were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Six others were convicted of piracy and were hanged, while a further four were acquitted and released. Within two years James II ceased offering privateering commissions.

Biography

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